The Highland baseball team continued their torrid start to the season with a pair of wins over Lexington and Lucas last week, making it six straight and a 12-2 record for the Fighting Scots.
Highland 9, Lexington 4
Jayden Collins was seeing the ball well at the plate for Highland, smashing three hits and knocking in a pair of runs to lead the Fighting Scots to a 9-4 win over Lexington on April 19.
The Fighting Scots had a five run second inning to start off the scoring. Gavin Wiggand and Evan Johnson had back-to-back walks to lead off the inning, and Hendrick Karya was able to drive in a run on a single to go up 1-0. Rhett Russell followed up with a sacrifice bunt to make it a two run game. After a single by Collins that put runners on first and third, Kort Sears hit a ground ball that was mishandled to put him on first and bring around a runner to score. Zach Church then hit into a fielder’s choice, but Hayden Kline lined a double to right, scoring two more runs.
In the bottom of the third inning, Johnson led off with a single, and after Karya flew out, Russell was hit by a pitch to put runners on first and second. Collins came through with a clutch two-run double to go up by seven. After Sears reached on an error, Church grounded into a fielder’s choice again to score a run.
In the top of the fifth, Lexington got on the board on a Zian Rhodes sacrifice fly. They scored again in the sixth inning on a Markale Martin RBI single to make it 8-2. Highland responded with a run in the bottom of the sixth when Jace Brooks scored on a misplayed grounder. Lexington put two runs on the board in the seventh inning when Michael Togliatti scored on an error and Braden Mumaw hit an RBI single, but the Fighting Scots were able to fend off the Minutemen the rest of the way.
Collins was 3-for-3 with a double, two RBIs and a run. Kline also had a pair of RBIs, and went 1-for-4 with a double.
Collins got the win for Highland, going five innings, allowing one earned run, three hits and a walk, while striking out two batters.
Lexington was led by Mumaw, who was 2-for-3 with an RBI and a run. Togliatti was 2-for-4 with a run.
Landon Hamilton was handed the loss, going one and two-thirds innings, allowing five runs but three earned, four hits and three walks, while striking out a batter.
Highland 16, Lucas 0
The Fighting Scots demolished Lucas on April 20, shutting out Lucas 16-0 in a game where Highland smashed 14 hits while allowing only four.
Brooks picked up the win, going three innings allowing one hit and one walk, while striking out two. He was also the star at the plate, going 3-for-4 with three runs and an RBI.
Sears had the lone extra-base hit on the day, going 1-for-2 with a double, two RBIs, two runs and two walks. Wiggand was 2-for-2 with two RBIs and two runs. Karya was 1-for-2 with a run and four RBIs.
